athornett

I have purchased RELCO lamp starter to make a neon calibration light.....however it appears I can only buy them in 25's! So I have a lot of spare ones - is any one interested in buying any off me at cost price? Andy

Hi Robin, Thanks for all your replies. I have been carefully looking through what you've said. I apologize for not having responded for last couple weeks but been away on holiday. Unfortunately, I can't positively say which 2 stars they were in Cassiopeia as I just pointed the scope manually at them and manually guided. My "observatory" is a log cabin and I bring my scopes out on to the grass. So, not permanently set up. So far, only tried aligning EQ6 once without success because I made the mistake of trying to do so using the guiding eyepiece on the CCDSPEC for the purpose and of course that uses highly polished mirror so you can only see very bright stars and it also has small field of view. So next time I will try adding 2nd refractor to top of Sky Watcher Equinox Pro 120mm (I have spare ST80 hanging around in shed somewhere and some rings!) Thanks for your efforts trying to identify those two stars - just goes to show how much information can come out of a "simple" spectrum - did a demonstration at my astro club (www.roslistonastronomy.uk) on Friday night and got lot of wows just pointing it at the lights in the room....... Re neon lamp circuit with RELCO starter - do you have a circuit diagram I could use? I went to the neon lamp thread you linked to - the main article listed there on a German website appears not to be available any more - I believe that was the one with circuit diagram Andy

I would also like to ask other members what they use to calibrate their spectrographs. In my study I have some compact fluorescent bulbs on a stand for lighting the room - I found this on Wikipedia and so far have used this for calibration - is this adequate or do I need something else? https://roslistonastronomy.uk/spectrum-of-fluorescent-light-to-use-for-calibration-of-spectrometers Here are more photos of the CCDSPEC spectrometer: https://roslistonastronomy.uk/photos-of-my-ccdspec-spectrometer My first astronomical spectra: Vega: https://roslistonastronomy.uk/spectrum-of-vega-using-cccspec Couple unknown stars in Cassiopeia: https://roslistonastronomy.uk/spectra-of-two-stars-in-cassiopeia-with-ccdspec Mars and Moon (turned out to be same as sun but there you are!): https://roslistonastronomy.uk/spectrum-of-mars-using-ccdspec I am really quite excited by this aspect of our hobby! Andy

Thanks folks for all your comments. I have had an interesting issue with interlacing on the QHY6 camera attached to the CCDSPEC - although I think I may now have sorted the problem. Photos and details at: https://roslistonastronomy.uk/issue-with-interlacing-on-fits-images-taken-in-nebulosity-4-with-qhy6-camera-on-ccdspec-spectrometer Following on from analysis at the link above, which suggests that the interlacing occurs in association with oversaturation of the camera chip, I carried out some test shots to look at the effect of overexposure on the quality of the spectra produced, which suggested that over-exposure was potentially more dangerous that slight under-exposure: https://roslistonastronomy.uk/effect-of-altering-exposure-on-spectra-of-daylight-and-compact-flourescent-bulb-1-8-2018 Andy

Wow! Incredible! Amazing! I wish I had got one of these earlier. I have seen this advertised at Astrofest over the last two Februaries in Kensington, London, and felt tempted but did not purchase one. Then, a few weeks ago, I came across a flyer I had bought home from Astrofest this year. I contacted Peak2Valley Instruments to find that there was one only left. Faced with the prospect of never owning one, I bought it....and I don't have any regrets - quite the opposite! I wish I had bought this earlier. I have a Daystar Hydrogen Alpha Quark & a Calcium-H Quark. Nothing beats the H-Alpha scope/filter as an upgrade to your standard night time scope but if I had a choice between one of these CCDSPEC's and the Calcium-H Quark, I would definitely go for the spectrometer. Don't get me wrong = the Calcium Quark is a great bit of kit - it is just that the spectrometer gives a real sense of immediate satisfaction and opens up a new world of observation to its users. So if you own a hydrogen-alpha scope and now want something more, consider getting one of these if you can. However - one step at a time. The spectrometer arrived neatly packed in an aluminium case. Dr Elliott had aligned and calibrated the QHY6 camera that came with it so this job was not needed. Good - because I would not have known where to start. This is quite different to other manufacturers. It is housed in a beautiful yellow CNC-machined housing - nice enough to impressive my Takahashi-owning observing buddy Damian. Guiding is part of the design so does not need to be added separately. There is a place to connect an eyepiece separate form the camera. This differs from the ALPY-600 spectrograph which costs around £2000 by the time you purchase the guiding module as well as the spectrometer and connectors. This one was only a fraction of that cost. After care from Dr Elliott has been nothing short of incredible. The poor soul has been bombarded with my e-mails and always promptly and politely responds with clear instructions and explanations. I wish every astronomer vendor was like this! He clearly knows his stuff and is happy to share his experience and skills with others. In use – during the day it is incredibly easy to take a spectrum of any light – just point it at it. For the sun you point out the window at any part of the sky (just avoid the sun) and a lovely solar spectrum appears of your computer. At night, my first try disobeyed all the instructions in the manual -I used my Sky Watcher Pro 80mm scope on Manfrotto alt-az mount and hand guided for 30 second exposures of Vega and a couple of other stars. I also took a spectrum of the Moon and Mars – shorter exposures and equally as easy. It does not matter if the star slips on and off the slit – all you need is enough light collected and a spectrum appears as if by magic! I am sure it will work a lot better on my EQ6 tracking or guided and with my Sky Watcher Pro 120mm which is a proper match of F7.5 for the spectrometer but even with the wrong kit spectrums just kept appearing and lines matched up with those on sample spectrums off the internet – amazing! I am not used to stuff working first time when I use it – and straight out of the box. Dr Elliott needs to be thanked for achieving this, as some other spectrometers are not like this. A word on hand guiding – a spectrum appears when the star is on the slit, so you know it has dropped off the slit in the eyepiece when the spectrum turns into a round star, so I just moved the star back on to the slit then. The spectrometer can use any combination of cameras and a range of software. However, it comes with propriety software called PCSpectra which works well and is covered extensively in the manual. If you buy the QHY6 camera at the same time as I did then Dr Elliott will calibrate it for you – and even (as I have proven) help sort out the mess you make when you don’t realise the camera should not be taken off again and take it off to take a peak inside! We’ve had calibration files going back and fore like yoyos and all I can say is he has been a marvel putting up with the mess I’ve created...But then my history with astronomy equipment is a bit of a legend in our astro club. Dr Elliott recommends using Nebulosity 4 to capture the FITS images – certainly they integrate well with the QHY6 and PCSpectra and purchasing Nebulosity helps to keep the system working “out of the box” so I would recommend it to an y purchaser. I have posted images of spectra and my experiences of using the spectrometer at https://roslistonastronomy.uk/category/spectroscopy/ccdspec-spectroscope This is such a great piece of kit – and British made – that it is a shame that this is the last one available. I hope that there will be so many folks wanting to buy it that either Dr Elliott will make some more or someone will take up the mantle and continue to provide a UK-built spectrometer for UK astronomers – one that works just as intended and works for novices but is also a serious instrument capable of serious spectrometry work for advanced astronomers. I don’t have any personal relationship to Dr Elliott or anything to gain from this review – I think I met him once at Astrofest……